‘Chocolate has an incredible history of wealth, slavery, great ecological richness — and deep loss’

Katie Sampeck is British Academy Global Professor of Historical Archaeology at the University of Reading. She tells Srijana Mitra Das at TE about sustainability, sin — and chocolate:
Katie Sampeck’s office is packed with books, files, papers in piles — and little yellow boxes. TE longs to ask what those are but Sampeck is describing her work. ‘The core of my research is to understand the cultural history of chocolate.’ Sampeck is not a confectioner or chef though — she is a historian who researches sites, documents and local archives, focusing on indigenous evidence and experience. ‘These show us the everyday feelings of people consuming chocolate in their lives.’ Sampeck also studies chocolate in phases of human transition. As she remarks, ‘I’m interested in globalisation, environmental change, social inequalities and shifting technologies over time.’
GROWN WITH LOVE: Chocolate from cacao started in Mesoamerica, the complex of indigenous cultures in Mexico and Central America, way back in 600 BC — although it took time to grow, communities cultivated this patiently
Eras play a mighty role in Sampeck’s work. Growing chocolate takes time. ‘Cacao is the tropical tree whose seeds are used to make chocolate,’ she explains. ‘Northern Amazonians started tinkering with it, despite it being quite slow to produce fruit. This wasn’t an instant payoff — but people were patient. Its story shows us an enduring love affair with this tree. It reflects how people managed climate alterations and agricultural productivity — and how they related to each other.’
The world of chocolate has deep roots, stretching 7,000 years. ‘Its beginnings were in Venezuela and Ecuador. We see archaeological evidence of cacao being domesticated from plant residues and chem-ical traces on artefacts — people were using different parts of the cacao plant, combining it and creating recipes. The earliest items used for it are tall-neck bottles that look like they’re for wine — but they stored a chocolate drink.’ So wondrous was its taste that the product began to move. ‘Within a thousand years,’ Sampeck explains, ‘Cocoa moved into Mexico and Central America. A whole set of technologies grew specifically for making cocoa drinks and foods, like special grinding stones, a method of heating and cooling to create solid chocolate, etc.’
AGES AGO: A temple and monkey figurine excavated in Rio Ceniza Valley, El Salvador
It tasted amazing enough to take on spiritual meanings. ‘We see archaeologically how cocoa seeds were used in ceremonies, weddings or dedication rituals for temples or deities. There are depictions in murals and paintings on pottery. All this,’ Sampeck waves her hands in excitement now, ‘Gives us a window into this really rich life, where cocoa was associated with fertility, beauty and wealth.’
Chocolate’s association with richness was literal — Sampeck’s research shows cacao actually became money. ‘Cacao had grown cultural and ritualistic values — but it also became something that could be used in making transactions, pricing and trading.’ This economy intrigued new arrivals. Sampeck states, ‘Cocoa isn’t easy to grow and only a few places were really big producers. By the 1530s, the first Europeans arrived in Mesoamerica and noticed this one region, in what is El Salvador today, was the most spectacular cocoa producer. They said money grew on trees there and Spaniards could make their fortune. Grown in discrete areas and circulated, cocoa was practically like an export product from its origins but Europeans stepped into that system now. Initially, they didn’t like the drink itself — but they liked its earning potential.’

Eventually, chocolate conquered even the iffiest European palate. ‘By the 1560s, there was more aware-ness of cocoa’s culinary uses. By the 1580s in Spain, chocolate became the centrepiece of breakfast which had been a fairly neglected meal in Europe until then. Indeed, chocolate was the first caffeinated beverage to reach Europe — coffee, from the Middle East, came soon after and then came tea,’ Sampeck stresses, ‘We think of tea as dominating everything — but it’s really the other chro-nology, where chocolate is the gateway drink.’
Yet, despite the growing ardour around it, chocolate was also seen by colonialists as having a ‘dark’ side. TE asks Sampeck about her research on race in chocolate. She explains, ‘Cocoa grew originally within sustainable agroforestry systems — here, it had other companion trees and vines. Indigenous texts describe exquisite drinks and foods made from this diverse set of plants, fruits and flowers that went all the way from the sunny edges of a thicket to a cloud forest. Early Spanish accounts, in describing cocoa, also talk about vanilla and achiote, other shrubby trees growing in the same environment. Until then, vanilla and chocolate were seen like twins. But European assessments were a little doubtful about chocolate — there was a growing association with ‘sinfulness’, with many feeling chocolate was just too pleasurable and alluring. Alongside, there were shifts in cocoa’s production — the Spanish wanted to appropriate it. Indigenous people had managed how it was grown, which meant they retained rights over their land and could resist Spanish policies. But new cocoa-growing areas were set up in thinned forests in Ecuador, etc. Spaniards started plantations — with enslaved African labour.’
STACKED: Cocoa production in a 1929 advertisement, showing native labour under a colonial supervisor
From being a source of pure pleasure, chocolate suddenly grew linked with pain. Sampeck recounts, ‘Cocoa turned from being a product of Indigenous skill and craft to a system of extractive and oppressive labour, geared towards extremely high-volume production, cultivated as a mono-crop, its ecological diversity now lost. By the 19th century, major production moved to West Africa, with the king of Portugal wanting to maintain direct control. Alongside the race to own it, there was this imagination of chocolate as ‘dark’, ‘sinful’ and born of enslavement.’
Meanwhile, vanilla moved to an exalted imaginary. ‘Vanilla production grew restricted to areas like the Gulf Coast of Mexico because these were the only places with the right insects for pollination. A tremendous ecological shift — and devastation — occurred with monocropping and vanilla became select, prized and associated with a ‘purity’ which made it seem suitable for, say, children or ‘good’ women. Both chocolate and vanilla thus began as twins — but became polar opposites in connotation.’
WAKING UP: Consuming chocolate became part of European breakfasts
Chocolate continues its troubling legacies. Sampeck explains its environmental history — and present. ‘It faces the same challenges now as in the 16th century, the early colonial era — there were climatic shifts then, a cooling which created unstable rainfall, drought, etc. We see the same instability affecting cocoa producers today, particularly in Africa. Monocropping has also lowered plant diversity and has a large deforestation footprint — these are all ongoing legacies.’
Finally, we ask if chocolate, with its bitter-sweet history, also touched the lives of non-humans. Sampeck chuckles and moves her swivel chair backwards, saying, ‘Let me show you something.’ She rummages about and then holds up a picture (see left), explaining, ‘The original cacao agroforests weren’t just home for plants, trees and soil but also for birds, insects and animals — and some of the oldest depictions show their deep bond with cocoa. Monkeys were simply enchant-ed by cocoa and ancient murals show primates consuming it. This is a pot we excavated in El Salvador which was part of a ceremonial deposit in a tem-ple, showing a monkey with a lordly headdress and earrings. You can imagine he had his fill of cocoa.’ TE concluded but didn’t get to ask Sampeck about the little yellow boxes. Let’s just imagine they hold stashes of chocolate — it’s such a rich and delicious thought.